Witness Reveals Intimate Details about the Skaggs Case
In the trial for the death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs, his former teammate on the Los Angeles Angels, Mike Morin, offered crucial testimony. Morin stated that both he, Skaggs, and team employee Eric Kay, who provided them with pills, secretly maintained their drug use. Furthermore, he affirmed that the organization was not responsible for their actions. Morin, who played as a pitcher, recounted that in the 2017 season, he believed that only he, Skaggs, and Kay, an Angels communications employee, were aware of the use of illicit drugs. Morin admitted that he did not share this information with his wife or family, and was aware of the illegality of his actions. He also shared his perception of Skaggs’ feelings.Morin answered several questions about Skaggs’ responsibility in his decision to consume alcohol and opioids the night of his death in a Texas hotel. His response supported the position of the Angels, who argue that Skaggs’ reckless decisions were the cause of his accidental overdose death in 2019. The Angels have maintained that they were not responsible for Skaggs’ death and that they were unaware of his drug problems. The Skaggs family’s lawyers allege that the Angels put Skaggs in danger by being aware of Kay’s drug use and continuing to employ him. Kay was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2022 for supplying Skaggs with the oxycodone pill containing fentanyl that caused his death. During the criminal trial, several players testified to having received pills from Kay. Morin detailed how Kay provided them with 30-milligram blue oxycodone pills, known as “blue boys.” He described moments when he and Skaggs would crush a pill and snort it in the club’s bathroom, similar to how he did with candy in high school. Defense attorneys showed text messages between Morin and Skaggs where they discussed the use of pills. Morin explained that the distribution of pills was usually “extremely discreet.” He would leave money in his locker for Kay to pick up and leave the pills. During the 2017 season, he received pills from Kay between five and eight times. On one occasion, he waited with Kay outside the players’ parking lot to receive the pills, but felt uncomfortable and left. Morin admitted that he never questioned how Kay obtained the pills, assuming they were pharmacy medications.“I think he wanted not many people to know what he was doing,” Morin said. “That’s all.”
Mike Morin
Morin spoke emotionally about the pressure that professional players feel to stay in the Major Leagues and how difficult it is for those who are not in the locker rooms to understand “the immense ups and downs” that it entails. He assured that he would share his experience with young players and explain to them that his way of handling his injury was not the correct one.“I was completely unaware, in a very naive way, that a prescribed pill could be contaminated,” Morin said. “So I assumed that any pill we were going to get wouldn’t be fatal.”
Mike Morin
Morin’s testimony came a day after Skaggs’ mother, Debbie Hetman, stated that she had not informed anyone with the Angels about her son’s Percocet addiction in 2013. She stated that she would have if she had been asked. During his testimony, defense attorneys questioned Hetman about parts of his previous testimony, where he stated that he did not believe his son was addicted to Percocet in 2013.“I am 100 percent ashamed to be here and say this is what I did,” Morin said. “That is my own burden.”
Mike Morin
The trial continues on Wednesday with testimony from compensation experts who are expected to explain how much Skaggs could have earned in the rest of his career.“I just didn’t use the word addiction,” Hetman said of her testimony in the deposition. “You can use whatever word you want. Problem, issue, addiction, it’s all the same.”
Debbie Hetman
